Bush administration, on its way out, streamlines guest-worker visa program that aids growers

"Aiming to ease farm labor shortages, the Bush administration issued sweeping changes to the nation's agricultural guest worker program Thursday," Teresa Watanabe reports for the Los Angeles Times. "The controversial rules, many months in the making by U.S. labor and immigration officials, would streamline the guest worker application process, revise the way wages are calculated, and modify requirements for demonstrating that a labor shortage cannot be filled with U.S. workers, among other changes."

The administration said the new rules would spur needed expansion of the Section H2A visa program for temporary agricultural workers. Workers' rights groups said the changes "would drive down wages, displace U.S. workers and reduce federal oversight of potential abuses," Watanabe writes. (Read more)